Summary:
- Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade meant to enable the withdrawal of staked ETH was successfully tested on Sepolia, a public testnet.
- The test simulated two crucial upgrades – Shanghai on the execution layer and Capella on the consensus layer.
- Developers will now test Shanghai-Capella or Shapella on a third public testnet before the mainnet update- Goerli.
Ethereum developers successfully tested the Shanghai upgrade on the second public testnet Sepolia ahead of the mainnet update scheduled for March.
Shanghai represents a major milestone for the ETH network after its switch to proof-of-stake in September 2022. The upgrade will enable withdrawals for staked Ether locked up by validators since December 2020 to ensure network security and qualify for rewards, developers have said.
So far, Ethereum developers have mimicked staked ETH withdrawals on two public testnets – Zhejiang and Sepolia. These testnets allow developers to rehearse what the eventual upgrade will look like while fixing bugs and introducing patches to the update code if necessary.
After Sepolia, developers will test Shanghai on the Goerli public testnet. Goerli will be the third and last testnet to trial withdrawals for staked ETH before developers ship Shanghai to the mainnet and implement EIP-4895 meant to unlock over 16 million ETH.
The test on Goerli should happen in March before the main upgrade barring any changes to the timeline from Ethereum developers.
Test ETH On Ethereum’s Goerli Testnet Skyrockets Over Weekend
The price of Goerli Ether (gETH) surged as high as $1.60 during the weekend after speculative traders aped on the token designed for developers to simulate updates. Per reports, the spike in gETH price occurred after LayerZero designed a swap product on Uniswap. The product was aimed at providing easy access to test Ether for developers.
Developers previously had to rely on faucet services to access testnet tokens, a process LayerZero sought to improve on. Instead, market speculators aped in on the token listed at $0.10 per token on the decentralized exchange, driving up the price.
Popular developer Mudit Gupta opined that the hike in test ETH price on Goerli might signal the end of the public testnet.